Academic Integrity at Aquinas College

Academic Integrity

Aquinas College is committed to promoting academic excellence through dedication to academic integrity and to fair processes for resolving alleged academic violations of the Student Code of Conduct. 

In this spirit, the Faculty and Staff Assemblies and the Student Senate approved the following Academic Integrity Statement: “Aquinas College is rooted in the Dominican traditions of prayer, study, community, and service combined with a deep respect for truth, honesty, and integrity. In this spirit, we strive to create an environment in which integrity is prized and practiced. We expect all community members to uphold these values through honesty, fairness, and respect for others.”

 

Forms of Academic Dishonesty

Plagiarism. It is understood that when students submit academic work, they are responsible for its integrity.

When students submit work claimed to be their own, but which in any way uses ideas, organization, wording, or anything else from some other source without an appropriate acknowledgment of that fact, plagiarism has occurred. Plagiarism may take many forms. In general, however, it can be defined as presenting as one’s own the words or work or opinions of another.

Students commit plagiarism when they submit as their own work:

• Part or all of an assignment copied or paraphrased from another source, any on-line source, a book, a magazine, or a manuscript, without proper citation
• Material prepared by another person or organization
• The sequence of ideas, arrangement of material, or thought pattern of someone else. Plagiarism occurs when such a sequence of ideas is transferred from the source(s) to a paper or other student work without the process of reflection, integration, and reorganization in the writer’s mind, and without proper citation
• Writing generated by an AI program such as, but not limited to, ChatGPT

Students are accomplices in plagiarism and equally culpable if they:

• Willfully allow their work, such as a paper in outline or finished form, to be copied and submitted as the work of another
• Prepare a written assignment for another student and allow it to be submitted as the other student’s own work

In terms of plagiarism, when in doubt as to the criteria for assignments, it is the student’s responsibility to consult beforehand with the instructor who will receive the finished work.

 

Cheating. Cheating includes, but is not limited to, any attempt by students to answer questions on a test or quiz by any means other than their own knowledge. Examples of cheating include, but are not limited to:

• Use of any materials in the process of completing an examination which have not been approved by the instructor; including a cell phone or other digital storage device
• Transmission of information, either given or received, during an examination period
• Intended observation of another’s work for hints on materials or technique during a laboratory test without the consent of the instructor
• Obtaining, in part or in whole, a copy of the examination without consent of the instructor
• Buying or procuring previous examinations given in the course without the consent of the instructor
• Submission of identical papers of work for two different courses without the explicit approval of both instructors.
• Falsification of official documents such as internship hours, service or volunteer hours, student teaching logs, etc.
• Using answers generated by an AI program such as, but not limited to, ChatGPT.

 

Complicity. Complicity is assisting or attempting to assist another person in any act of academic dishonesty.

• Students may not allow other students to copy from their papers during an examination or on any assignment.
• Students may not assist other students in acts of academic dishonesty by providing substantive information about test questions or the material to be tested before a scheduled examination, unless they have been specifically authorized to do so by the course instructor. This does not apply to tests that have been administered and returned to students in previous semesters.

 

Academic Integrity Policies and Procedures

All cases will be resolved based on whether a reasonable preponderance of evidence exists to support claims that students violated the Aquinas College Student Code of Conduct for Academic Integrity as outlined in the Course Catalog. To learn more about current policies and procedures, please read: Academic Integrity Procedures: Faculty and Student Responsibilities.

In the event of an alleged violation, faculty are responsible for submitting “Academic Integrity Reporting Form.” Students must submit the “Academic Integrity Student Response Form.”

Once the forms have been submitted, the Academic Integrity Liaison is responsible for meeting with the student and faculty promptly,  providing a fair assessment of evidence, making recommendations about college standards, and seeing each case through the resolution process.